What was supposed to be a long-awaited windfall for hundreds of Chicago firefighters and paramedics has turned into a full-blown payroll mess. Instead of getting the lump-sum retroactive pay promised under a long-delayed contract, many are still empty-handed after the city stumbled through the rollout of the checks. Union leaders say a string of basic administrative errors, from mis-mailed payments to missed pension withholdings, has shorted members and forced them to file a formal grievance.
Union president Pat Cleary says the Johnson administration did not start issuing the retroactive checks until mid-January, well after a Dec. 30 deadline spelled out in contract documents. When the city finally sent the money, he says, officials discovered payroll had failed to take out required pension deductions and that some checks were mailed to outdated addresses. That combination led to cases where tens of thousands of dollars were briefly dropped into deferred-compensation accounts, then pulled back out, creating tax-year and withholding headaches for members, as reported by Chicago Sun-Times.
“How can you get that check back? We don’t know where it is,” Cleary told the paper, referring to misdirected payments, while also blaming City Hall for the pension-deduction mistakes. According to the union, a letter attached to the contract requires retro pay delivered after Dec. 30 to include interest at 4.5% per year, and some individual retro checks reach roughly $35,000. The union has filed a grievance seeking that contract interest and other remedies and says it is prepared to take the dispute to arbitration if needed, according to Chicago Sun-Times.
What this means for the city’s budget
As reported by WTTW, city budget documents and City Council debate put the total retroactive-pay bill at close to $185 million. The mayor’s 2026 spending plan anticipates borrowing to cover that one-time hit. Critics argue that taking on debt just to pay retro wages highlights the ongoing financial strain at City Hall and makes it tougher to plan for other core services…